March 2026

The Port Melbourne foreshore has these rather cute toilets, with quite separate blocks for men and women- the mens is smaller but more decorative, and they both have extra privacy fences added later, as were the multilingual signs. They were built in 1902, at a time when there were bands playing and amusements like merry-go-rounds, especially on Friday nights.

I don’t know if there was an earlier bandstand, but the one there now was built as a war memorial just after WWI. It’s rather plain red brick, and small compared to others, though it does have a fun dome. Hmm maybe it’s just a seating rotunda.

Looking a bit like Paris – this very cute light is on the Port Melbourne foreshore, part of a memorial dating from 1890. It was erected to the memory of Frederick William Maskell and James McNab, the driver and fireman of a train who died in the Windsor Rail Accident in 1887; they were considered heroic for staying on their train attempting to put on the brakes when they rounded the bend in the cutting at Windsor and saw a stationary train ahead. They were among six dead, and 150 were injured. They both lived in Port, and a public fund was started with days of the tragedy. It was first located near the Graham Street station, been relocated three times, and vandalised and restored a few times too. One old pic has no light, the other from 1995 just the post. The pic of the main inscription isn’t mine, I failed to look at that side, so didn’t know it was a memorial till just now.

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